Ballooning spending curtailing opportunities: MP

Federal Member for Farrer Sussan Ley says she is not holding out hope for any projects to be funded in her electorate in tonight's federal budget.

Ms Ley says she is hoping that there will be health and road announcements for the region, but she predicts that that will not happen.

"We've seen government spending balloon out of control and that's having an effect on every single program that matters to the region I represent, most particularly the regional development opportunities that we've seen disappear, and we've also seen a government that has no agriculture policy and that's bad news for the far west," Ms Ley said.

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has rejected calls to raise the Newstart allowance for the unemployed in the budget.

He has also announced changes that will see lower payments for single parents with older children.

Ms Ley says if Labor is not going to increase welfare payments, it should try to reduce the cost of living.

"The most important thing the government can do for people on fixed incomes is to ease the squeeze on the cost of living, and the most important thing from that is to be responsible economically and manage the economy properly and take away the carbon tax," she said.